Introduction
Circle Of Squares – Circle Of Squares
Artist: Circle of Squares
Title / Release Page: Circle of Squares
Release Date: 2014 Aug 04
Genre: Ambient / Minimal / Downtempo
License: CC BY-NC-SA
Media: MP3 / OGG / FLAC
Pricing: Free / Name Your Price
Label: Fwonk*
Rating: ★★★★★★★
I realized the other day that I hadn’t checked out any releases from Fwonk* for quite sometime. So, off I trundled to their BandCamp site and came back with several releases, including Circle of Squares. It’s always fun trying to pin down just what a Fwonk* release is going to bring you, and this one is no different.
Circle Of Squares
Circle of Squares is Sir Sidney Rough Diamond, Lofi Earnie, and The Fist of Cheese. They are from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire. Their SoundCloud profile makes them sound like all-around nice guys… The kind that help the blind across the road, help the lost find home, and want to give the world music just to make everything a little bit better.
They have a very minimal, beat based approach that is as mesmerizing as it is danceable. the tracks on Circle of Squares follow a fairly consistent pattern: set up a rhythm, add a counterpoint, and then add a third layer of rhythmic counter-point.
This might sound like it would get tedious. But, in reality it’s actually a really fun release to listen to. Some of the tracks are more straight forward dance tracks, but then there are the occasional surprises, like ‘Executive Producer’. This is a track that quickly builds into an African style rhythm, complete with Kalimba sequenced line, and wood block, hi-hat, tambourine, and even a little bit of steel drum thrown in. In all, it’s the track that stole the show for me on this release.
Conclusion
As usual with a Fwonk* release I didn’t know what to expect. At first I thought this release was kind of thin. Just a few guys sitting around playing with drum machines and writing counterpoint lines. But I was won over by a few elements. First there is a purity in the simplicity of these recordings. This is a group of people who are doing this to have fun, and want to bring something good to the world. Second is they showed a bit more diversity when I hit ‘Executive Producer’, if I had thought the recording was a bit flat, I didn’t fee that way after hearing that track.
There is a lot of heavy, serious music these days. Circle of Squares is non-bombastic music that isn’t in your face, and doesn’t seem to be taking itself too seriously. It’s mostly just fun to listen to or to dance to. Sometimes that is all you want or need.
